Against All Odds
by Green.Finch
Summary: She had been missing for far too long and Daryl Dixon had given up hope of seeing her alive ever since. As the sickness that has taken over the world drives the Grimes Clan further out the Georgia line in hopes of discovering a cure in Washington D.C., the group finds themselves facing a familiar and unforgotten face upon their arrival. Co-written by Seoulwars and myself.


"Against All Odds".

**Co-written by Seoulwars from tumblr and myself.**

She had been running for days, stopping only to catch her breath in short intervals. She had to keep going. Someone else had to be out there. Someone besides them. She was beyond exhausted now, fear of what was following her the only thing that kept her going. Cutting through the overgrown forestry, she heard the ominous thunder from above. Within a few minutes, she felt the first light drops of rain on her nose. _'The rain will cover our tracks'_ a voice in her head echoed. _Who? _The forest began to clear out the further she ran, until she finally reached a road. Collapsing to her knees by the side of the driveway, fatigue now consumed her as the abrupt downpour of rain drenched her clear to the bones. In the alleviation of her fear, the confusion now took hold of her.

For hours she sat there, along edge of the road even after the thunderstorm above had long gone, waiting for anything to happen. Suddenly, she broke from her trance that took hold of her as lights from an oncoming vehicle roused her attention. She reached for the gun she had as it pulled over on the opposite side of the road not too far from her. She stood slowly, her muscles burning at the sudden movement. Three men exited the car and slowly made their way over to her. One had his hands up in a surrender position but the other two had firearms. She instantly raised her gun at the trio, slowly backing away. The man with his hands raised was talking to her, but she had could not make sense of it.

"Please, what is your name?"

She said nothing, backing further away as they approached her.

"Are you here by yourself?"

"She's crazy, doc. Look at her eyes. Feral. We should just put a bullet in her and bri-"  
One of the men behind him had said, before the other cut him off.

"No!" He yelled back.

Her heart raced as their voices rose, startling her.

"We have safety. Sanctuary. People. Please, let us take you to them. You will be safe." The mans hands were still raised, as he slowly came closer to her.

Safe. Her mind searched, looking for a time when she had felt safe. All she had was faceless people in empty places. What happened to her? Everything was so confusing and disorientating. She had lowered her gun slightly, consumed in her own plight to remember. The slightest touch on her arm was enough to wake her from her engrossment. The unarmed man now stood directly in front of her, his hand lightly resting on her forearm. Startled at how close he had gotten, she started, pushing the man's hand away from her arm and fired her gun. The shot had missed, but the other two men were now upon her.

"Sedate her!" The unarmed man yelled from the ground.

She fought the other two, firing another shot before one managed to grab her arms behind her. There was a stinging prick on the side of her neck and she sensed the liquid entering her body. Strength and the ability to resist quickly left her, the man now loosening his grip on her. The other man helped to pick her up and together they carried her to the vehicle, as she finally succumbed to sleep.

* * *

A young woman knocked on the nurse station doors. "They're ready for you Beth."

"Okay, I'm just finishing up here with Tommy." Beth swivelled back around to the sniffling young boy in front of her.

"Alright, let's take a look here." She inspected the graze on his knee. It wasn't anything serious, but without treatment it could easily turn into something worse. Tommy didn't know that however.

"Oh no.. this is bad. This very bad Tommy. I'm afraid.. i'm going to have to cut off your leg. There's nothing else we can do for it." Beth said, a trying to stifle a smile. The young boy's face paled in horror.

"No Miss. Beth, please! Please don't cut off my leg!" He whimpered.

"Well, there is something else I could do to save it.. but it might hurt a little. Are you sure you can handle it?" Beth inquired.

Tommy nodded earnestly. "I can handle it, Miss. Beth! I'm tough! I can do it!"

Beth smiled at him and turned away to get the disinfectant. She cleaned the injury first, then applied the disinfectant, covering the wound with a few band aids. Lastly was the needle to prevent him from getting gangrene. Although, Beth knew young Tommy wanted to flinch in fear, he did his best to put a brave front.

"All done! You're going to live and with both legs at that! I'm very proud of you Tommy, you were very brave." Beth said, clearing away the instruments.

"I'm always brave Miss. Beth. Thank you for saving my leg!" Tommy said jumping down from the bench. He darted out the room before she could tell him not to run.

Shaking her head silently, she put away her instruments and cleaned up before heading out of the nurses station to the review room. Her anxiety grew with every step she took. Beth had been at the D.C Labs for 5 months now. Two weeks ago, her superior had come to her saying she was going to have a check up evaluation. Her mind had been constant with worry since then. Since her last evaluation she had made little to no progress. Most of her past was a mystery to her, not being able to remember anything, Beth saw herself as nothing more but an open book with with many missing pages. There had been small instances, small recollections she had remembered. The biggest being her name. That was a few weeks after they found her on the side of a road. One of the head nurses had done a roll call one morning, while she had sat with the other patients. The woman looked at her and in her head she had simply thought "_Beth Greene_." It was the simplest thing and yet it was so strange. As if it had been there all the time, but never at all. Being unable to remember who she was, where she had come from, what she was doing beforehand had consumed her in those first weeks at the D.C Labs. Frustration and anger at her helpless situation drove her out of a catatonic state. A need to help those around her encouraged her to seek her job with the nurses. And that's all she had done ever since.

Beth turned the corner, trying to recollect everything she thought my be important from the past few months. She reached the room and knocked lightly. A man called out to her to enter and she opened the door. The brightly lit room was small, with two men and a woman sitting along a table facing a single empty chair. The man in the middle motioned for her to sit in the chair and she did so, closing the door behind her.

"Miss Greene, welcome. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to see us. I am Dr. Henley, Head of Psychology." The man in the middle said. He had a kind face, and smiled at her. "These are my associates, Dr. McGrady." He gestured to his left at the man concentrating on the papers before him, brow furrowing under his glasses. "And Dr. Calloway." To his right, the woman sat with a cold, calculating expression that made Beth feel nervous. Beth nodded.

"Now, today we are simply here to talk about your time here with us, and to see if you've made any progress. It's not a test of any kind, we will not be grading you. So there's nothing to worry about, ok?" Dr. Henley explained.

Beth nodded again and some of the tension left her.

"Good. Now, we'll start from the beginning then shall we? Do you remember your name?"

"My name is Beth Greene."

"How old are you?"

"19."

"Do you remember where you were born?"

"No."

It was the exact same as the last time she had been here. Same questions with no answers. At first it was simple medical basics, but soon after they moved onto more gruelling questions. Who were her parents? Did she have any siblings? Was there a significant other? Where did she come from? Where was she going when they found her out there by herself? All questions Beth had asked herself every day and she gave them the same answers she had given herself. Nothing.

"How has your health been lately, Beth? Are you happy working in the nurses station?"

"Yes. I've been fine."

"Have you been having any symptoms of depression? Thoughts of suicide?"

The thought startled her. "No."

"Have you been experiencing any nightmares? Reoccurring dreams?"

Beth swallowed hard. "No."

Dr. Henley sighed, looking back at his papers. "Well, that seems to be all that we require of you today, Beth. Do you have anything you would like to say or add to today's review? Any remembrance at all?"

"My favourite colour is yellow. Like the sun." Beth stated.

Dr. Calloway made a face and looked back at her notes, annoyed. Dr. Henley, however, smiled at her. "Very well, Beth. You may leave. Have a good day."

Beth gladly left the cold room and made her way back to the nurses station. She had a few more patients to look after, before her shift ended. She ate dinner in the mess hall with the others. Took a shower and read some of the book one of the young girls had given her, before reluctantly retiring to her bed. As she turned out the light and rolled over, anxiety and fear slowly spread throughout her, expectant of what was to come. Her thoughts turned back to the evaluation.

"_Have you been experiencing any nightmares? Reoccurring dreams?"_

Beth wasn't sure why she lied. Truth was, she'd had nightmares from the first night she spent here. But she hadn't been able to tell anyone about them. Not only for fear of being diagnosed with something horrible. But, because they felt personal somehow. Some nights she dreamt of humans. Most nights the things that shuffled about in her dreams were anything but. On every occasion though, she awoke to find herself screaming for someone who she would not remember in the morning. Something was holding her back from confiding in the nightmares with anyone and she couldn't figure out why. Beth hadn't been entirely truthful about being happy here at the D.C Labs either. She was most certainly grateful for the opportunity they had given her and she wasn't depressed or unhappy. But she wasn't joyful over it either. The only light in her days was from the time she spent with her patients, the kids. Those sunny afternoons in the kids rec room, finger painting and playing cards with the children would sometimes be the only thing keeping her here. Often Beth would get the distinct feeling that she was in the wrong place. That she was meant to be out there, with other people. Her people. She had been close to leaving, quite a few times. But the prospect of leaving the children behind saddened her and the horrors of what had become of the world frightened her. '_Besides,' _she would think to herself as she unpacked her belongings for the 10th time, '_there's nothing for me out there. No one is looking for me.'_


End file.
